Janhvi Kapoor-headliner Ulajh is an espionage-thriller from the house of Junglee Pictures, the banner behind the seminal Raazi (2018). Helmed by National Award-winning director Sudhanshu Saria (for the short Knock Knock Knock), the film boasts an eclectic ensemble of actors like Gulshan Devaiah, Roshan Mathew, Rajesh Tailang, Meiyang Chang and Adil Hussain, among others. Owing to a competent team, Ulajh opens with some promise. Like any self-respecting spy film we begin in a foreign location.
We meet Janhvi’s Suhana Bhatia, a young IFS officer, as she runs uphill in Nepal’s Kathmandu. A tracking shot which feels like a homage to the title sequence of The Silence of the Lambs. Like Clarice Starling, Suhana too is a woman trying to push in a word in a male-dominated world. There it was the FBI, here it is the foreign diplomacy. But the parallels, sadly end here. This story isn’t as internal as it tries to be. A pacy plot is bubbling to be served.
Suhana gets appointed as India’s Deputy High Commissioner at the London embassy. A young recruit for such a plush job. There are murmurs of nepotism as she comes from a diplomat family. Her grandfather was the country’s first UN representative, her father, Dhanraj Bhatia (Adil Hussain), is also a revered diplomat. “What does she have besides her surname?” whinges Roshan Mathew’s Sebin, Suhana’s subordinate at the embassy, behind her back.
The meta-commentary, trying to inculcate criticisms against Janhvi Kapoor the actor into Suhana’s character, feels too spelt out, too indulgent. It seems like the character is merely a tool to flip Janhvi’s on-screen image, which has been stuck in meek, submissive roles (Roohi, Mili, Bawaal, Mr. & Mrs. Mahi). “This lamb will gobble up the whole lion,” she says at a crucial point as if it’s a mic-drop line. The effect, is mostly lukewarm.
Ulajh comfortably saunters during its set-up. It gets the style, the sombre mood of a spy-drama. The sparse interiors, dimly lit with yellow lights, the grey London skies, all add up to create a bleak environment (production design by Mansi Dhruv Mehta). The cinematography (by Shreya Dev Dube) is impressive and captures the steely coldness of an espionage thriller. But it’s all surface-level since the storytelling doesn’t hold up. It’s more mood than meaning.
The story springs up when Gulshan Devaiah enters the frame. He plays a secret agent, shadowing as a Michelin-star chef. After a bittersweet start, he charms Suhana and predictably, honey-traps her and blackmails her for confidential reports. Now it is all about Suhana’s dilemma, her ‘Ulajh’. Will she protect her honour or her country’s? It’s a tired trope, presented with some flair at the start. Gulshan shakes up the genre expectations. It’s amusing to see him play a blackmailing spy in the tone of a crass playboy. Both Gulshan and Roshan Mathew essay their characters with an entertaining irony in a film that gets sucked up in its own seriousness.
The plot shifts goalposts rather quickly. As Suhana stands in front of a window after a sniper attack and a crack spreads in the glass like a spider’s web, one might feel like the director wishes to convey the cracked state of her psyche. A noble pursuit but it is abandoned to make way for a story that progresses like an avalanche. Identity of undercover RAW agents being discovered, is India developing a Hydrogen bomb?
Ulajh scrapes for spy-cliches and jumbles them up together. The second half nose-dives into a deep valley of mediocrity. It all comes down, unimaginatively, to a conspiracy to assassinate the Pakistani PM on Indian soil. Before this, there is also an ill-fitted advertisement, where Suhana and Roshan’s Sebin enjoy candies atop a terrace while snooping on an intelligence officer (“Life goes but the Pulse doesn’t?”)
Janhvi Kapoor strains to display her acting chops in Ulajh. She screams, frowns, glares and desperately brushes off blood from a rug. It works till the film goes on auto-pilot. A blabbering Gulshan of the first half becomes a silent assassin, fit for a Hansal Mehta narrative. The film seems to be lost and the events happen over each other. Ulajh becomes increasingly convoluted, even absurd. Once Janhvi’s Suhana decides to give it back to Gulshan’s character, she gets behind Roshan as they speed away on a bike. Behind them, graffiti on a parking lot wall reads, “Made love, now war.” I will be thinking about this for a long, long time.
Cast: Janhvi Kapoor, Gulshan Devaiah, Roshan Mathew, Rajesh Tailang, Adil Hussain, Meiyang Chang, Alyy Khan and Jitendra Joshi
Director: Sudhanshu Saria
Rating: 2.5/5 stars
(This story originally appeared on Cinema Express)